Cultural Pride

Ned Begay begins telling the story of how he became a Code Talker in World War II as a tale of how he won several medals during the war. However, as the novel begins to unfold, the reader can see where Ned is going with his story. Ned talks about how he was taught that being a Navajo, that speaking his language and participating in his cultural traditions, was a bad thing. Ned then talks about the discrimination he faced at the hands of the white man who assumed because Ned was an Indian, he was stupid.

As Ned's story continues, the plot is filled with irony as Ned learns that his people were turned down for service in the military because of their inability to communicate in English, but then the Marines began to recruit Navajos so that they could use their language to communicate in...